Documents / Official release

Gemini 7 Technical Debriefing, 1965

National Aeronautics and Space Administration · 1965 · 222 pages · text from the file's own layer

This is a preliminary transcript of the Gemini 7 technical debriefing, dated December 23, 1965, from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. It was made from tape recordings of the crew debriefing held December 19 to 21, 1965 at the Crew Quarters, Cape Kennedy, Florida. In it, Frank Borman and Jim Lovell go through countdown, powered flight, insertion, station keeping with the booster, systems, experiments and training. The table of contents also lists a section on visual sightings during orbital flight.

From the source:Release of 2026-06-12 Incident: December 19-21, 1965, Cape Kennedy, Florida. This document is a preliminary transcript derived from voice recordings of the Gemini 7 flight crew debriefing conducted December 19-21, 1965, at the Crew Quarters, Cape Kennedy, Florida. Lights and flashes are mentioned and there is discussion about having proper illumination for vehicle docking. Borman and Lovell discuss celestial and terrestrial observational anomalies and note sightings of Mercury, meteors, aurora, and lightning. They also discuss not being able to see any stars once the Sun comes up.

  • p. 72 …The sea condition was very goon ; 2 to ,1. foot waves . We bobbed around, although I…
  • p. 132 …Borman The Red Sea area was one of the clear areas all the t i me…
  • p. 135 …The Suez Canal , the Red Sea, and the coast of Arabia were loud and clear the…
  • p. 136 …Lovell The Red Sea and the Gul f of Eden as it goes into the Arabian…
  • p. 140 …We evaluated them looking at the Cairo area and the Dead Sea, and I see no…
  • p. 146 …About the only area that was consistently clear was the Sahara and the Red Sea a…
  • p. 166 …You could pick out the area of the Salton Sea there even from where we were…
51
if this oscillation doesn' t s top, I' ll have to punch the
main chute on the amber l ight, rather than the altimeter .
But the oscil l~tions did stop.
6. 11 Hain Chute Deployment
Boman I punched the main chute at 10 , 600 f eet as indicated on
the altimeter , and just a millisecond. aft er that, the
yellow l i ght came on the 10.6 barostat l ight . The
thing deployed immedia t ely into a reefed condit ion , and we
examined it in the reefed condition and it l ooked very good_
LoveJl Frank thought it was in the reef ed con<lition for 3 months .
Borman It seemed like it s tayed reefed for a long time , then it
unreefe <l , and I couldn ' t find one gore or one pane l that
was ripped or frayed or anything.
Lovell It was a good chl1te .
Borman Perf ect chute.
6. 12 Post Main Checklist
Rorman We accompl ished the post main checklist, anrl then we
braced oursel ves very well and wen t to the single point. of
attitun e .
6.13 Single Point Re l ease
Bormim When we went to the s ingle point attitude it was exactly
the same as we had had it at St . Louie--where they ' d
rigged--they had a test after John and Gus ' s fl ight . They
put a test capsul e suspens ion at St . Louis, and this was

About this file

Official release, from the pursue collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 222 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.